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Thursday, September 21, 2006

COLUMN: WILL CHAVEZ WIN U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL SEAT? AND IF HE DOES, WILL IT MATTER?

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, whose megalomania seems to rise in direct proportion to his country's oil income, will be fighting for his most coveted prize over the next few weeks: winning a seat on the U.N. Security Council, from where he could grab the biggest headlines around the world. Read the full column here, and let me know whether you agree.

22 Comments:

Emerson said words to the effect that one must be sad when one sees on print what you have wanted to say but couldn't and it is said by someone else. This is my case with such a great name, "narcism-Leninism"! It really describes not only Chavez but all the long line of typical salvific-messianic neo-caudillos in the present generation of "populists". http://elmismodia.blogspot.com/http://thecommentarybyamoros.blogspot.com/

Guatemala is not so much "less confrontational" as it is more conciliatory ... to Yanqui interests. Guatemala just represents the most active status-seeker at the floor of Tio Sam's table, eager for scraps devoid of dignity and self-worth. The fact that Vicente Fox's Mexico is supposed to be a supporter of the U.S.'s canidacy-by-proxy for the SC Seat only confirms the basis of the opposition so many countries have for Guatemala's Washington-sponsored aspirations.

The last thing geniune members of the global community want to see at the United Nations is the awarding of a SC Seat to a country supported by the same country that placed John Bolton in its UN ambassador's chair.

After all, who is more of a threat to the future of the United Nations: Venezuela and its emerging partnerships with other countries of the developing world or the United States who appointed as its representative in Manhattan the same person who uttered these infamous words:

"The [U.N.] Secretariat building in New York has 38 stories. If you lost 10 stories today, it wouldn't make a bit of difference."

and

“There is no such thing as the United Nations. There is an international community that occasionally can be led by the only real power left in the world and that is the United States when it suits our interest and we can get others to go along.''

People in the USA are generally ignorant about happenings outside our borders.Chavez foaming at the mouth was picked up by CNN and FOX and other MediaChavez succeeded in uniting Democrats and Republicans as several pointed out when asked for their opinions on his rantings

Thanks Hugo for making Americans aware of your Anti-US VitrolAs for Hassan,were you abused as a child? ,You sound like Dr. Evil in a Austin Powers movie!!THere is no US conspiracy justjealous and inept malcontents hungering for power like your friend HUgo , who is doing more business with the US today than at anyother period of his pregnancy,sorry I meant presidencyCheers!

Why can;' the USA just accept Hugo Chavez and work with him? He was democratically elected by the Venezuelan populace and that seems to be very important to George Bush and many other white Americans, who are intent on using USA power to force democracy on the world. If I were Chavez, I would hate the USA too, as we are constantly trying to undermine his Presidency and trying to foment a coup. Hugo Chavez definetely has a legitimate gripe of the USA. However, I believe many Latin Americans of Spanish ancestry have an unjust hatred of the USA/Anglos, being tremendously upset that their hated historic rivals, the "Anglos", have outdone them in every conceivabley way to the point that Hispanicks pay their life savings to be sneaked into the USA, and they feel humiliated and then hate. That is an unjust hate, considering the many contributions the USA/Anglos have given the world, including, though not limited to: soccer, electricity, baseball, the internet, microwave oven, airplane, the automobile.......

I believe this situation can be changed with the presence of Chavez in the Security Council.

Unfortunately the press have only talked about his "The Devil" mention forgetting a lot of importants points he touched:

* US violation of UN resolutions about Irak and what should UN do in these situations* Energy crisis: "By 2020 the world will consume in 20 years what humanity has used up to now"* World warming: "carbon dioxide will inevitably be released, thus warming our planet even more" He remembered Katrina and its victims.* Washington consensus and its consecuences. He called for a new and better economic order.* Pre-emptive warfar and international law violation* Elimination of the Veto in the UN because is not a democratical tool.

The world has changed and the UN must be updated. Guatemala's goverment will not make something in that way.

Hey anonymous, any way, the USA loses in the hearts and minds of Spanish descended Latin Americans. If we take measures to get rid of Hugo Chavéz, we get accused by you people of "interference" in your countries and the hate increases tenfold. If we deal with Chavéz, we get accused of "not caring" and "dealing with terrorists", with again, the same result, the hate increasing and Spanish descended Latin Americans vowing to bring down the USA and do do everything they can to force their language and culture on the USA, to "prove that they are the best", that Spansih language and culture won out" in the USA, proving that Hispanicks are "the best".I have said it time and again, so long as the world wants to learn English and not Spanish, and they listen and dance to USA music and continue to ignore Spanish speaking Latin America, then Hispanicks will continue to hate the USA, feeling outdone on the world stage. Hispanick macho pride will never allow for their hated historic rivals, the "Anglos", to outdo them on the world stage in any way, shape or form.

Andres: You write a good layout of most of the facts, but I have two fact bones to pick on your piece - here, we have the Dominican foreign ministry telling the Chinese press that it's openly campaigning for a Security Council seat.

Second, you say China is openly supporting the Venezuelan thug for the UN seat - I am not at all sure of this, only Chavez has said he has the China support, the Chinese have not said a thing. Not only that, they were stunned at the Chavez speech, too. Brazil isn't necessarily supporting Chavez either. In this piece, we have Celso Amorim the foreign minister saying it 'would be natural' for Brazil to support Chavez - but that is not the same thing as saying one will support Chavez. I think those thinly veiled words say exactly the opposite of what Chavez thinks. And Putin in Russia hasn't said anything either, though in his case, liking the weapons contracts, I think he will support Chavez.

I think Chavez's devil speech sank his UN seat bid and he will lose by a high margin. The UN assembly seats were half full when he spoke despite his known entertainment value and the delegates were laughing at him, not with him.

Even Bolivia's Evo Morales distanced himself from Chavez's devil comments in an interview with far-leftist Amy Goodman, and he is pretty much as pro-Chavez as anyone can get. See this interview here. I've yet to hear any leader, not one single one, defend the Venezuelan thug, yet people like Morales, who depends on Chavez for aid, particularly with Brazil angry at him, are doing all they can to publicly distance themselves from him.

That's a real bad sign. I think the whole world is fleeing from Chavez as if from a bad smell.

I am reproducing a comment that I wrote in a most interesting and insightful blog on Venezuela (Venezuela News). While I do not agree with everything published in the blog I do have to give Daniel Duquenal, the author of the blog, very high marks on the quality, knowledge and depth of all his writings. "Venezuela Hoy" is indeed a must read blog for anyone interested in the political uncertanties the Venezuelan people face today.

… “I think every country in the world would like Chavez to join the UN Security Council if at all because he is one of the few people willing to make comments about Bush that are in the minds of everyone.

This is nothing to be proud off though because it takes a real thick with little or no knowledge of international and diplomatic relations to act this way.

Chavez is a monkey with a gun in his hand and that is certainly an amusing and even comical situation as long as the monkey is not loose inside your own house.

Most of Latin America can not resist the temptation of sending the monkey to play in the Security Council which happens to be the US turf. After all, the Security Council is tied up dealing with issues that are, at best, anecdotic for Latin America.

The problem with these political and diplomatic stand offs and/or games is that one way or another someone ends paying a high price for them. In this case, it is the Venezuelan people paying the bigger share of that price.

By considering Chavez a comical figure whose only attribute is his ability to annoy the US, the international community is down playing the fact that he is a typical Latin American “Caudillo” running an autarchic government that is increasingly totalitarian. It is down playing the fact that that freedom and democracy are at stake in Venezuela and that for millions of Venezuelans it is not a game.

The other problem is that Latin America doesn’t seem to understand that the United States doesn’t take well these games.

We do not understand them and normally instead of calling our attention what they do is trigger a reaction on our part that ends up hurting the whole region.

When it comes down to foreign relations we are not sophisticated like our European counterparts. We are pretty primitive and tend to see a threat were others see a stand off.

We also tend to react to threats with a clumsy shoot from the hip cowboy style and that is also bad.

Chile would do better by giving further thought to their voting decision and further, maybe joining Peru in finding a better Latin American candidate.

Argentina and Brazil come to mind. They both are openly critical of the US but proper. We might not like their positions but we can certainly relate to them.

Last but not least, coming up with a consensus candidate other than Chavez would be politically fair to the struggle of the Venezuelan people”…

CAUTION!!! Profanity is widely used on "The Big Man from Brooklyn" link below.

..."The Bush administration has just announced that if Venezuela wins a seat in the UN Security Council, Bolton's nomination will be withdrawn in favor of The Big Man from Brokklyn. Apparently, Bolton's approach is deemed too soft and his connections to the established oligarchy a serious liability in dealing with the UN bureaucracy. The Big Man's solid credentials as The Voice of the People are thought to be more in line with the current trend in the direction of autocratic populism. The Big Man became the obvious choice following his recent public denounciation of Chavez's El Diablo speech at the UN. When questioned about The Big Man's demagogically confrontational style, administration officials noted that this is considered an asset at the UN"...

About this blog

Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald columnist Andres Oppenheimer, author of five best-sellers on Latin American affairs and whose syndicated column appears in 55 major U.S. and Latin American newspapers, comments on the latest events in Latin America and U.S.- Latin American affairs. He is a member of The Miami Herald team that won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize. He also won the 1999 Maria Moors Cabot Award, the 2001 King of Spain prize, and the 2005 Emmy Suncoast award. He is the author of Castro's Final Hour; Bordering on Chaos, on Mexico's crisis; Cronicas de heroes y bandidos and Ojos vendados, and most recently of "Cuentos Chinos" (Plaza & Janes, Mexico.) A new Oppenheimer Report appears every Sunday and Thursday.